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Friday, March 30, 2012

One of the things that I am hoping to do more of this year, is not only start helping more individuals in person, but also raid the homes of those that are already blessed with that organizing gene {and share those spaces with you!} Every single time you accomplish any organizing project, big or small, is something to be excited about and proud of. And because I blog about home, DIY and organization for a living, I get to read and be apart of a lot of amazing success stories and do happy dances with you, whether virtually or in person.

I can't express the giddiness I had when Jillian invited me into her home and snap pictures of all of her incredible accomplishments. It was so much fun spending the morning with her, chatting about her beautiful house and seeing the transformations that have taken space. She let me snoop in all of her drawers and cabinets and closets, which is oddly thrilling.

Jillian wrote:

Hi Jen!

Anyone who knows me would know I've always been interested in design and decorating. We moved into our home four years ago and it's been so exciting working on each room individually and also consider house the whole how flows together.

My friends and family would be surprised, however, to know I never really considered the hidden spaces and how they functioned. In the past they would probably be shocked to open a drawer and see the mess and disorganization! Not anymore! I discovered your blog last fall and learned that not only do we live in the same town, but our boys are in the same class at school!

I was so inspired by your posts that last September I decided to begin a total house purge and added organizing to my list of hobbies. I started with one drawer, then a cupboard, then a closet, etc... I just kept going!

My absolutely favorite organizing makeover is our bathroom closet. It only had a few deep shelves so we couldn't even reach all the way into the back. I gutted it, painted, and installed narrow white shelving which almost makes it a bit of a walk-in closet now. The baskets from IKEA were a perfect fit and I reused our plastic storage. After some fun labels, it was completely pretty, functional and organized! I finished it in early December and it looks exactly the same today!

Other areas that are really working for our home are:

The new office space including our household binder

The kid's school binder and school drawer

The baskets in the laundry room for sorting clothes

I cannot wait to continue to work on every square inch of our home. THANK YOU Jen for your inspiration!

Jillian

Jillian and her hubby have really been working on making some lovely transformations to their home over the last couple of years! Would you believe that what once was this...

Is now this?

Which also opens up into their super cozy living room!

One of the things I adored about the living room is that Jillian smartly tucked their gaming system {along with accessories} into a pretty basket to avoid having it set out and create eye clutter:

And because storage space is at a premium, she condensed down all of those bulky DVD cases into a nice binder system!

One of my favorite spots is their art display! It's such a fun and happy moment in their home and it was simply created with curtain rods and drapery rings!

Jillian tucks her home office in an armoire...

As she mentioned in her note, it wasn't always so tidy - here are a couple of before and afters:

She now uses the file drawers to hold all of her kid's important "keepsake" papers from school, similar to my system, all pre-labeled by year.

They also made some updates to brighten up the kitchen!

I love the use of wall space!

A couple of cabinet before and afters?

Her baking cabinet now has everything organized by type in baskets and labeled see through canisters for powdered goods!

Under the sink also received some love by covering some containers with pretty paper to hold bags and corralling like items:

At their peninsula, she created a "school" drawer, which has a binder with all of the kid's current school newsletters, reading logs, etc... along with items to work on their homework and their daily vitamins:

I really love the use of baskets, labels and twine!

They also make sure to stay on the same page by having a framed family calendar in a central location!

Her pantry area is nice and organized as well! It was a closet gut job that has made her life easier in the end!

Command hooks keep those longer cleaning tools nice and accessible:

Speaking of closet transformations, Jillian mentioned her favorite was her bathroom closet update, and I couldn't agree with her more! It's incredibly functional now and doesn't look an ounce like it did in it's previous life....

She removed the shelves, gave it a fresh coat of paint and added in new shelves that were so deep so she could better utilize the entire space:

Seriously, aren't those baskets and labels so sweet?

She even added some decorative knobs to hang her necklaces:

And even the floor of the closet got some love!

Who am I kidding! The whole bathroom received a lot of love! It's so pretty!

Before:

And now!

The last stop on the tour is the laundry room, which is equally as fantastic as the rest of their home. I just love it!

Before:

And now!

I just love that they pulled cabinet doors off to create a sorting station!

Jillian really has done such a lovely job brightening up her spaces with warm paint choices, updating the functionality of cabinets and closets by changing shelving systems, using wall space for storage and adding labels and systems that her whole family can manage.

A giant THANK YOU to Jillian for letting me walk through her home and chat about her space. I left there feeling inspired to go home and look for something to organize myself! We are just one giant ring of inspiration and ideas which is what makes it so fun and rewarding!

Can you just feel a weight lifted from their day to day life, by looking at her before and after photos? What's your favorite transformation? That bathroom cabinet is an organized dream... I could kiss it!

Have you been getting your organizing on? Are you interested in letting me raid your newly organized space and share it right here on the blog? Do you live in the Twin Cities area? Submit your story and some photos to iheartorganizing@gmail.com!

What an incredible home! I don't have the decorating gene nor the organization gene, and I completely in awe of all of that awesomeness. I'll be able to use a lot of Jillian's ideas in my own house, though. Baby steps!

Every room turned out so beautifully! I've been working on organizing areas of my home for the past year, but struggle with making the special touches that make the organized areas also beautiful. Great job with all your spaces! They look so functional as well as beautiful.

For your bathroom makeover, did you refinish the existing vanity or put in a new one? The bathroom seriously looks magazine quality beautiful!

In our kitchen and bathroom we left the original cabinets, but added new doors and drawers. The bathroom cabinets are slightly darker than the kitchen, but they are both the same style. I really love how they both turned out!

We felt it was really affordable for what we did. We left all the original cabinets in place and because they were already a dark oak stain, we replaced doors and drawers in the same dark oak, but updated the style. After some updated hardware, it is a new kitchen! I can get you the name of the guy who did it for us if you are in western WI or the Twin Cities?

Some really great ideas I feel I can accomplish in my home this weekend. Already my middle son has been organising all his DVDs into a binder - he really enjoyed it! What a space saver, you would not believe the mountain of empty boxes on our floor, next to the compact storage binder which actually holds 96 discs (and we have already filled it OMG!)

I have just stumbled upon your blog Jen~and I have fallen in love. I too have 3 children (2 boys and a girl) and our little 2 bedroom house is going to be transformed into a functional, organized, and lovely place to call HOME very soon thanks to the inspiration (and ideas)I have recieved from reading your blog! Thank you for sharing Jillian's story...some great ideas have been shared, I love that she removed the doors on her laundryroom cabinet, such a simple change and yet so productive! I am hoping that after a lot of hard work over the summer, I too will have something to share with you and have a home that I can be so proud of. I look forward to reading more...i heart your organization too!

Wow...amazing!!! She has inspired me as well! My laundry room is perplexing to me...there has gotta be another way! I think I have to go stare at it now and move some stuff around...and out! Thanks for sharing...Love.

I just installed a curtain rod & hooks system at my office to prevent people from sticking those infernal thumbtacks in the wall. I love Jillian's ideas for the kitchen walls! I'm moving into a teeny-tiny cottage and, while I have a ton of organizing ideas, hadn't even considered using the wall space between counter and cabinets - wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing :-)

I wish I could get more too! I actually got them at Walmart last spring. They were a new collection then, but Walmart doesn't carry the anymore. Maybe they will come out again this spring with new colors though so keep checking? They are actually plastic, but look more expensive than they were (About $6.00 each). Also, they came with a cover, but I didn't use that in most cases.

Oh my goodness that is just fantastic. Jen because of you I have spent my Sunday morning cleaning out and re-organising my kitchen drawers! I've made so many little improvements around the house inspired by you!

She has done a great job so far. I always love to see before and after organisation posts - it encourages me to do a purge! I just finished my wardrobe and was so happy to finally have everything organised again. I have to admit that as an interior designer I love making my house beautiful, but sometimes the behind the scenes cupboards can be a little lacking! Thanks for the inspiration as always :)

The "laundry organizer" was originally a built in cabinet with doors and I simply removed the doors so there is a shelf already in there holding up the upper laundry baskets. I just set them on the shelf.

I just came across your blog, thanks to Pinterest! I am about to start a major remodel and organizing project. One thing that has me befuddled is the cd's and dvd's... We have several of the binders with cd's, and I hope to follow your lead and do the same with the dvd's and Wii games! What did you do with the cases?

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